Monitoring of personal interactions between parties, such as elderly patients or children and caregivers, is important to ensure that the caregivers are giving proper attention to those they are entrusted to provide care for. In the past, such monitoring has been a somewhat difficult task, as those for whom care is provided often cannot accurately recall details of the interactions with their caregivers.
Technology has been put in place to monitor such interactions. For example, remote video monitoring cameras, often referred to as “nanny cams”, have been used to record interactions. However, this type of monitoring is limited in that it is “line of sight” monitoring. That is, the camera can only record what is happening within sight of the camera lens. The camera cannot record what may be happening out of sight.
Bar code readers and near field communication (NFC) tags have been employed for monitoring the movement of parties, such as incarcerated individuals. For example, the incarcerated individual wears a badge or other device having a bar code or NFC tag, and as that individual passes by a bar code reader or comes within range of an NFC receiver, the location of the individual is recorded. Thus, movement of the individual may be monitored as the individual passes by bar code scanners or comes within range of an NFC receiver. Like the camera, however, bar code readers and NFC tags are limited by the short range of the scanner/receiver. Also, bar code readers and NFC scanners are limited to detecting motions at extremely short distances.
Conventional monitoring techniques, such as those described above, also typically require someone to review a video (as it is being recorded or after it is recorded) or a log of scans to monitor interactions and movement. This is a tedious task that may require several hours of undivided attention. Improper care by a caregiver or improper movement of an individual may be not discovered until well after the fact, if at all.